The paying guests (2014)

In 1922 London, Frances Wray and her mother must turn part of their home into an income. The arrival of paying lodgers changes who can move where, what can be overheard and which feelings remain private. Waters gives housework and diminished finances enough room to make the later crime feel rooted in a lived relationship. This is a long, sexually explicit novel with a slow domestic build before its criminal aftermath, best read when you want that accumulation.